Be A Simple Kind of Man
by XkabarjohnX
Summary: Derek is deaf and Stiles is captivated when he signs a song and wants to learn more to better communicate with Derek.


Stiles' loud laughter was barely heard over the horrible karaoke singer as he walked into the building with his friends. He received a few glares from others that were already seated and watching the train wreck, but he shrugged it off.

"It wasn't that funny," Scott, his best friend, grumbled.

"It was hilarious!" Stiles finally got control of himself and slapped the other boy on the back, watching his other two friends hurry off to get an empty table.

"Whatever..." He walked with Scott over to the table his other friends had found and sat down.

"Scott, where's Allison?" The redhead girl inquired, cuddling up close to her boyfriend and twirling her hair around a finger.

"She's gonna be late," the floppy haired boy told her, glancing over at the stage.

"So, who's going up there first?" Stiles asked enthusiastically, glancing between the other three.

The blond boy scoffed, his arm draped over the redhead's shoulders. "Lydia's not going and neither am I. I can't sing worth shit."

"We know," Lydia said, patting his chest. "Why do you think we only play my music in the car?"

The boy feigned a hurt expression. "You mean it's not just because you're trying to torture me?"

Lydia rolled her eyes and moved away from him. "Go get us some drinks, Jackson."

"Fine." Jackson stood up and walked over the to bar.

"Bring me something, too!" Stiles shouted, knowing the boy wouldn't.

He settled back into his chair and glanced over at Scott as the boy pulled out his phone.

"Hey, Allison's here," Scott announced, practically jumping to his feet. "I'm gonna go meet her at the front! Be right back!"

"Yeah, I doubt that. He's probably just gonna go make out with her for a bit."

Lydia pressed her lips together and nodded. "Probably."

Stiles moved his attention to the stage as the horrid singer finally walked off, letting the loud chatter bounce off the walls while the crowd waited for the next singer. His eyes started roaming around, soaking everything in, when he noticed some frantic movement a few tables away. Focusing on it, he realized it wasn't anything frantic. A group of five people were gathered around a table, two of them using their hands and making weird gestures at each other.

"Hey Lydia. What are those people doing?" He tried to be discrete as he pointed them out, but he really probably wasn't. She followed his pointed finger with her eyes and squinted slightly.

"They're signing," she replied.

"Signing? Like sign language?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "Yeah."

Stiles nodded briefly then looked back. The table now only had four people sitting there, all of them facing the stage. He started to look over when Scott, Allison and Jackson reappeared and cut off his view of the stage for a few moments.

"There you are!" Lydia exclaimed, getting to her feet and hurrying over to Allison to wrap her in a hug.

"Yeah, sorry I'm late," the dark haired girl laughed, hugging her back. "My dad was giving me grief."

"For what?"

"Hanging out with all of you instead of studying."

"Next up!" A loud voice sounded on the mic, making the group jump and turn toward the stage. "We've got Derek singing 'Simple Man'!"

The girls - thankfully - took their seats as an acoustic sounded. Stiles cocked his head to the side as a man, Derek, walked up to the front of the stage and moved the microphone aside. He saw his friends glance at each other out of the corner of his eye, but his focus quickly moved back to Derek.

Derek stared straight ahead as the music played, his eyebrows low and his jaw clenched. Stiles thought for a brief second that perhaps he'd gotten stage fright when he didn't move, but then the man lifted his hands and started signing at a certain beat. His expression changed from being completely unreadable to soft and full of fondness, jaw unclenching almost instantly. His hands were moving fluidly and gracefully, nearly hypnotic.

The normally spastic and restless boy sat completely still for the first time in years, eyes glued to the intriguing performance on stage. He moved between watching the beautiful movement of the man's hands to watching his face when he signed a long gesture. As he watched, he felt as though the world was fading away and all he could see was this man and hear the acoustic playing in the background.

The man's lips were moving slightly, as though he was mouthing words, but he never spoke. His biceps flexed as he moved his hands and arms, eyes closed. He seemed so sure, so confident, Stiles forgot that this man was deaf. He was even swaying to the music somehow!

Stiles couldn't look away. It was beautiful.

But all too soon, the music ended and some clapping was heard throughout the room, Derek's hands dropping to his sides. Stiles blinked and watched the man's face turn to stone as he hurried off the stage. He tried to follow his movements, but lost him in the crowd as people stood and started to mingle.

"That was really good," he heard Allison say.

"What even was that?" Jackson griped, a loud smack following not a second later.

"It was sign language, you dummy!" Lydia retorted.

Stiles spun around to face his group of friends and exclaimed, "I want to learn."

"Dude, why?" Scott asked from beside him. "Do you know any deaf people?"

"No, but I'm about to." With that, Stiles shot to his feet and turned in the direction where he'd seen Derek and his groupies sitting. It took him but a moment to find it and he made his way over.

They all noticed him approach, except Derek and another girl who was rapidly signing to him. Stiles awkwardly waved a hand and smiled at them. A bald, dark skinned man stared at him before smacking the signing girl's arm.

"Ow!" The brunette shouted, rubbing where he'd hit. "Boyd, what the heck?" The man just nodded his head at Stiles who gave her a big smile.

"Hi, I'm Stiles," he introduced himself, his gaze flickering over to Derek and quickly noting the man was staring at him. He turned to face him and widened his smile. Somewhere, a thought trickled into his mind and reminded him that he needed to speak slowly. "I don't know any sign language, but you did really great up there."

Derek raised an eyebrow at him then turned to the brunette girl who quickly signed something to him.

"Sorry," another girl piped up, dark hair similar to Derek's and the other girl's. "He can't read lips. I mean, he can, but it takes too much effort."

"Cora!" The other girl snapped.

"What? It's true!"

Derek moved his arms out, bent at the elbows with his palms raised and moved his hands away from each other then back close together horizontally a few times, his gaze focused on the first girl, eyebrows furrowed. She sighed and signed something to him.

"Um. Well, that's all, I guess," Stiles mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but this wasn't it.

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude," the first girl said while simultaneously signing to Derek. "I'm Laura, Derek's sister, and Cora is our younger sister. These are our friends, Boyd, Isaac and Erica." She paused in her signing as she said the names to point them out, Derek watching intently. "Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm sure Derek appreciates it. Don't you?"

Stiles looked to the dark haired man, who was watching Laura sign a little longer before she dropped her hands to her lap. He turned to Stiles and gave a stiff nod.

"Don't be such a stick in the mud," the curly blonde female, Erica, sitting close to Boyd quipped. "You did great and this guy is giving you a compliment. Just say thank you! Geez."

Stiles noted that she signed while talking as well, but it was slower and she paused a few times.

A loud sigh had him snapping back to Derek who moved his right hand upward, touching the tips of his fingers against his chin and moving his hand outward, palm up.

"He says thank you," Laura told him with a smile.

"Oh, uh. How do you say you're welcome?"

Laura gave him a wide smile. "Like this." She put her arm out about six inches from her chest, palm facing her, then moved it down vertically, at an angle, toward her lower abdomen.

Stiles mimicked her, albeit awkwardly, but beamed when Derek's lips twitched and he gave another stiff nod.

"Do you go up there and sign songs often?" Stiles asked as he sat down on one of the empty chairs set at their table. He watched Laura start signing to Derek when a bark of laughter sounded.

"You're a funny guy. We had to practically pay him to go up there!" Erica responded with a grin. "He hates the attention."

Derek scowled at her when Laura finished signing and Erica just laughed again.

Stiles turned to Derek. "Well, I thought it was a beautiful performance."

"Beautiful? Really?" Cora questioned, eyebrows raised in surprise.

Stiles nodded and watched Laura finish translating for him. When Derek looked back to him, his mouth was slightly open and his eyes - which Stiles noted were a stark hazel green - were wide with surprise. The younger man gave him a big smile and two thumbs up.

Derek jerked back suddenly, wrestling one hand into his pants pocket and withdrawing a small, black flip phone. He thrust it at Stiles over the table, giving him a hard look.

"Uh, do you want my number or something?" Derek glanced at his sister as she translated once more then nodded firmly. Stiles took the phone and flipped it open, quickly finding the contacts and putting in his number. He passed it back to the other man with a smile on his face. A second later, he felt his own phone vibrate and he pulled it out. A number he didn't recognize popped up with a text that said, 'It's Derek.' Stiles smiled up at Derek.

"Dude, he's sitting right across from you," the curly blond boy, Isaac, stated. He didn't sign anything to Derek, just let Laura interpret for him. She was glaring at Isaac though as she signed.

"Hey, it's no problem," Stiles said easily. "I don't know any sign language and he obviously wants to talk to me and he's probably tired of waiting for Laura to tell him everything I'm saying."

After Laura finished translating, Derek gave Stiles a grateful look, his tense shoulders visibly relaxing as he nodded.

"Stilinski!" He followed the sound of the voice to see his friends standing by the front entrance. "We're leaving! C'mon!"

"Well, that's me." Stiles reluctantly got to his feet and pushed his chair in. "It was nice to meet you all." He gave them a slight wave then hurried over to his friends. He didn't get very far when someone grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop. He glanced back to see Laura standing there, a small smile on her lips.

"Sorry, I know you're probably in a hurry," she told him, letting go of his arm. "But I just wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

"Saying that to Derek. Introducing yourself. Trying to actually talk to him. He doesn't talk to others aside from us very often because they don't talk directly to him. They just talk about him directly in front of him, don't even acknowledge him, and he hates it. But you're different. You even got him to almost smile, something he hasn't done in a long time. So, thank you."

"Of course. Anytime." They exchanged a smile and he started to turn away then turned back. "Hey, could you teach me some sign language?"

Laura's smile dropped and her eyes widened. "What?"

Suddenly nervous, he scratched the back of his head and looked down at the floor. "I mean, Derek and I could always talk over text, but I'm sure he'd get tired of that eventually. I know I will. But I don't know any sign language and you seem pretty fluent so, maybe, you could... I don't know..."

"Yes!" He looked up at her, startled from her loud exclamation as she nearly jumped up and down. "Oh my gosh, you have no idea how happy this will make him! Here, let me give you my number and we can set up a time to meet." He handed his phone over instantly and glanced over at Derek while she typed in her number. The man was subtly looking over at him, but when he noticed Stiles gaze, he averted his gaze. Stiles could swear the tips of his ears were turning pink when Laura handed him his phone back. "Thanks again! I'm so excited to teach you!"

"Me too!" The boy gave her a big grin, then finally ran off after his friends.

Derek: Beautiful, huh?

Stiles glanced down at his phone, completely ignoring the movie he and his friends had on. The boy grinned and quickly typed out a response.

Stiles: I don't lie.

Before he could set his phone down, it vibrated in his hand and he opened the message.

Derek: I knew you weren't.

Stiles: How did you know?

Derek: I just did.

Stiles rolled his eyes.

Stiles: So why that song?

Derek: Go out with me and I might tell you.

Stiles nearly dropped his phone, a loud squeak flying out of his mouth as his arms flailed. All of his friends gave him weird looks.

"Who are you texting?" Scott inquired.

"I don't really care," Jackson stated, turning back to the TV. "He's not interrupting the movie like he always does. Whoever that is has my approval."

Lydia rolled her eyes and shifted to face Stiles better. "Is it one of those people you were talking to at the karaoke place?"

"Um..." Heat crept up his neck and cheeks as he looked back at Lydia. "Maybe?"

"It is! Which one is it?"

"Is it the guy from the stage?" Allison piped up, a big smile on her face.

"Yeah...It is," Stiles told them, a small smile appearing on his face. "His name's Derek."

"Wait," Scott mumbled. "Wasn't he signing on the stage? Doesn't that mean he's deaf? You don't know any sign language. How are you going to talk to him?"

Stiles rolled his eyes heavily. He loved his best friend, but sometimes, the guy could be a little stupid. "That's what texting is for. And I'm also going to try to learn sign language so we don't have to stick to just texting and having other people interpret our conversations." He turned back to his phone and started typing.

Stiles: Ok. :) When?

"You can't learn everything from the internet, Stiles."

Laura: Hey, it's Laura. I want to get started on your lessons asap. When are you available?

The boy turned his phone to Scott to show him the text, a smug smile on his face. "The internet won't be teaching me this, my friend."

"Would you all shut up?!" Jackson shouted, head thrown back in exasperation. "I'm trying to watch a movie here!"

"Nope, sorry, we can't," Allison replied. "We need to help Stiles prep for his date."

Stiles' eyes bugged out. He turned his phone back around and saw an unread text message slip away from view, leaving only the notification. He quickly went to his conversation with Derek and stared at his phone for a good minute.

Derek: Tomorrow at 6? I'm thinking dinner and maybe a walk in the park.

Stiles: Sounds great to me. I'll pick you up?

While he waited for the other man to reply, he shot a response to Laura.

Stiles: I can come over tomorrow at 3. If that's cool.

Laura: Great! I'll let Derek send you our address. See you!

Sure enough, his phone vibrated right after with a text from Derek with his address and a smiley face.

"Stilinski, get that stupid grin off your face," Jackson snapped. Stiles didn't look up from his phone when he flipped the blond boy off.

"This is gonna take forever!" Stiles threw himself back against the couch cushions, sighing loudly as his head throbbed with an oncoming headache.

Laura reached out toward the boy and set a reassuring hand on his knee. "Hey, no! Learning a new language can take some time, but you're doing great! You'll be a pro in no time!" Stiles raised an eyebrow at her. "Come on! You almost have it all down!"

She pulled her hand away and shifted so she was facing the boy better. Placing her hand flat against the middle of her chest for a second, then moving her hands so her index and middle fingers of both hands were pressed together, the other fingers curled against her palm, she tapped her right hand's middle finger horizontally against her left hand's index finger. Stiles mimicked her, somewhat proud that he had done both signs quicker than he had an hour and a half ago.

"Great! 'My name' is the easy part. Now it's time to review your name - the part you hate." Stiles bit back a groan as she held up one hand and started fingerspelling his name. Stiles tried to follow up, but she signed it too fast and he'd only gotten to 'i'.

"Can you do that again, but slower?"

"Oh, sorry! I keep forgetting!" She did as he asked and they practiced a few more times until he could fingerspell his name without her guidance.

"You did it! Now sign the whole thing to me!" Stiles mimicked all the signs she'd taught him since he'd arrived albeit slower. She gave him a big smile and did jazz hands - which she'd quickly corrected him and said it was the same as cheering and clapping when he'd called it that. "Derek's going to be so excited! Speaking of, I should go check on him. Be right back!"

After she bolted up the stairs, Stiles sighed heavily and took this chance to look around the room at all the little details he couldn't take in earlier. He was currently sitting in large leather couch facing a fireplace that had a flatscreen TV mounted above it, a wooden coffee table set in between the two. A small piano sat against the left wall, picture frames scattered across the top.

Stiles scooted a little closer to the piano and peered at the frames closest to the couch. He could easily recognize Derek, Laura and Cora, but there were other photos of people he didn't recognize, people Derek and his sisters were smiling with. One picture stuck out from the rest - a large, spacious looking home with trees surrounding it, the sky overcast. A picture of an older couple was placed next to it, the man holding the woman in a happy embrace, smiles on both their faces. Stiles could tell the woman looked like an older version of Laura, but stronger cheek bones and the bridge of her nose slightly rounded, her dark hair seemingly thicker. Stiles found the woman in some of the other pictures, but that was the only one the man was in.

He lost track of time as he examined the set of pictures, intrigued that these obviously told a story of this family. He wanted to know more.

A throat cleared behind him and he started, flailing and jumping away from the piano. He looked over the couch to see Derek standing a few feet away, amused.

"Geez, don't sneak up on people like that," Stiles exclaimed as he slapped his hand over his heart. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" He noticed Derek was staring at his mouth and he was confused for a moment, but when the man's brow pulled down slightly, he jerked upright and spoke slower. "Dude, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot for a second! Wait, Cora said you have trouble reading lips..."

Derek rolled his eyes and shook his head. He pointed to his own lips then gave Stiles a thumbs up.

"So, is this an okay speed then?" Derek nodded and Stiles visibly relaxed. "That's gonna take some getting used to. See, I talk a lot and my brain likes to go faster than my mouth and I forget that I talk fast because I just have to get everything out, you know?" A ghost of a smile was on Derek's face, but his brow was still pulled down slightly. "I sped up, didn't I?" The man's lips pulled into a knowing smirk and he put his right hand up horizontally, palm down, and poked his chest with his thumb a few times. "I don't know that sign yet." Derek nodded once then lifted his hand and slowly fingerspelled a word. "I don't know all of the alphabet yet. Sorry."

Derek sighed loudly then glared at Laura as she walked in the room. She caught his glare and returned it with wide eyes. "What?"

Stiles sat back as the two began a silent conversation in sign language, hands moving rapidly, the glare turning into one of frustration rather than anger now on Derek's face. Their gestures went from the pace he was getting use to seeing to incredibly fast.

He blinked. "I'm sorry."

Laura snapped her neck in his direction, her expression full of confusion and concern, halting her signing. "Why are you sorry?"

Stiles scratched the back of his head. "For being a slow learner..." He waited until Derek met his gaze then made sure to enunciate his words. "Maybe we should hold off on our date until I know more."

Derek shook his head vehemently and started signing to him, then stopped and pulled his phone out. He vigorously typed on his phone and looked at Stiles when he was done. The boy felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out.

Derek: I don't care if you don't know much. I still want to go out with you. If that means we have to communicate via text then we will.

Stiles lifted his eyes back up to Derek. The older man was looking at him with such hope and longing. How could he say no?

"Okay. We can still go."

Relief flooded Derek's expression and he signed a quick 'thank you' to him. Stiles smiled right back.

"Well, where are you two going?" Laura asked while simultaneously signing. Derek merely glanced at her when he noticed Stiles gaze move away.

"Yeah, Derek, where are we going?" Derek watched his lips then gave him a smile of his own. He then made a gesture that Stiles didn't need interpreted - drive. "Want to go now?" Derek nodded, so Stiles waved at Laura and led the older man out to his jeep.

Once they both were inside the vehicle, heart suddenly pounding, Stiles turned to Derek and tapped him on the shoulder. The man looked at him expectantly, Stiles inhaled slowly then started to move his hands the way Laura had taught him.

'Hi Derek,' he signed. 'My name is Stiles.'

Derek's eyes widened then he broke into a huge grin. So much happiness radiated off him, he nearly glowed with it.

Stiles couldn't help but return the grin with his own big smile. He knew then that he wouldn't stop learning sign language.

"How did you two even communicate?"

Stiles was hanging out with Scott at his place, both of then jabbing at their controllers as they stared at the screen. Stiles was telling his best friend about his date with Derek from the night before.

"We used text a lot," he replied. "He also taught me a lot of signs so we did that for a little bit as well."

"During dinner, too?"

Stiles glanced at Scott when he heard his tone and saw his brow pulled down in confusion. "Yeah."

"But weren't you worried about doing that in public?"

Stiles paused the game, ignoring his friend's protest and set his controller down. "No, Scott, I wasn't. You seem to forget that I don't really care what other people think about me. Besides, you should've seen his face when I signed anything to him. It was like watching a child on Christmas morning looking at all of his presents. I was the one that made him that happy! Me! Who cares what anyone else thought?"

Scott was looking at him intensely. "You like him, don't you?"

Heat rushed up his face and turned away. "No... Well, maybe..."

A clap on his back had him flailing back around to face the other boy who only grinned in amusement. "I think it's weird that you like this guy after just meeting him two days ago. But I can tell you're happy so I'm not going to judge you."

"Or Derek."

"Or Derek."

Stiles smiled. "Thanks, man."

It was late that afternoon and Stiles found himself watching Laura signing to him, signing the same thing right back to her. She was giving him an encouraging smile whenever he signed something.

A loud thud interrupted them and they both looked up at the ceiling. Stiles had been coming over every day for two weeks now and knew that Derek and Laura lived with their other sister and the three friends Stiles had met at the karaoke night. They usually stayed away when Stiles was over for his lessons. He was used to hearing little thuds and bangs from above, but this was new. Especially the animalistic roar that followed.

Laura jumped to her feet, panicked, before Isaac came tumbling down the stairs.

"I told you no," Cora snarled from the top of the stairs. If Stiles wasn't mistaken, her eyes were glowing gold.

"Cora, Isaac!" Laura snapped, moving over the stairs as the curly blonde got to his feet. "What is going on?"

"Isaac kept trying to get into my room!"

"I wanted to borrow a movie! Is that such a crime?" Isaac retorted, his voice different slightly. Stiles could've sworn it sounded like he was growling.

"And I told you no!"

"Guys, stop it!" Laura interjected. "Cora, calm down and go back to your room. Isaac, stop bothering her and find something else to do." Cora huffed and disappeared, but Isaac whined as he turned to Laura. "No buts. Stop acting like a child and go somewhere else. I'm trying to finish my lesson with Stiles." Isaac grumbled but went up the stairs anyway. The woman turned to Stiles with an apologetic expression.

"Hey, no worries," he said before she could say anything. "It happens." He slowly got to his feet, slightly shaken from what he'd just seen and heard. "I just remembered that my dad is coming home early and I need to get working on dinner. Thanks for the lesson!"

Laura looked at him in confusion, but he ignored at as he practically rushed out the door, barely noticing Derek standing and staring at him from the hallway.

He rushed out to his jeep, jumped into the front seat and gripped the steering wheel tightly. He took a few deep breaths to keep himself calm, his mind reeling. After a few moments, he pulled his phone out and unlocked it. He tapped a few times on the screen then started scrolling, his eyes scanning through everything.

He jumped when a light tap sounded on his car window. Derek was standing outside with a look of concern.

'You okay?' He signed.

Stiles sighed and put his phone away, then stepped out of his jeep.

'No,' he signed back. 'I'm a bit confused.'

'About what?'

Stiles thought about his next words carefully, looking Derek directly in the eyes. 'What are you?' The other man's eyes widened a fraction and that confirmed what Stiles knew - no one in that household was human. 'Cora and Isaac got into a fight a few minutes ago and I saw and heard...some things.'

Derek was very still before he lifted his hands and slowly signed, watching Stiles carefully. 'What did you see and hear?'

'Glowing eyes and growling.' He had to fingerspell a few of the words since he only knew so much.

The other man pressed his lips together in a thin line as he glanced away. He moved his right hand up to his face, palm facing him with his fingers apart. He held it there a moment, hiding the lower half of his face, seemingly hesitating. Then he pulled his hand away from his face, his fingers moving together and his first two fingers touching his thumb.

'What's that sign?' Stiles inquired.

Derek moved his right hand and slowly fingerspelled a word. 'Werewolf.'

"Oh," he mumbled. Stiles felt he should be more freaked out, but now that he knew, he relaxed. Derek was giving him a perplexed look. He started signing again, curiosity getting the better of him. 'What's it like?'

'You're not afraid?' It took Stiles a moment to process what he'd said; he'd learned the sign for afraid and scared a week ago when Derek had come up behind him and scared him. Stiles gave him a smile and shook his head.

'It's pretty cool.'

Derek gave him an incredulous look. 'Okay. Come back inside and I'll explain.'

Stiles followed the other man back into the house and sat down on the couch when Derek gestured toward it. Laura walked in from the kitchen and glanced between them in confusion. Derek started signing to his sister so Stiles turned his attention to the pictures on the piano.

It wasn't until a few moments later when Laura spoke, "I had a feeling you'd figure it out." He looked back at her in surprise. "You're a smart kid. Derek and I may be good at keeping secrets, but the others... well, you know."

He nodded, but his attention was now on Derek who wasn't looking at either of them. His muscles were stiff, his posture straight and expression closed off. Stiles bit his lower lip worryingly.

"Did I upset him?" He inquired.

Laura shook her head. "No. He's just being...Derek."

He gave her a look. "He said he was going to explain it all a bit more. What it's like to be a werewolf, I mean."

"Oh." Her face grew somber. "He's not the best one to ask about that."

"Why not?"

She glanced at Derek then jerked her head toward the kitchen. Stiles took the hint, noticing her sign something to her brother on his way out of the room. She soon followed and grabbed a cup off the counter, sitting down at the table with him.

"Cora, Derek and I are all born werewolves," she explained, looking down at her cup. "The others were all bitten by our alpha a few years back. As a werewolf, all of our senses are heightened, as is our speed. Another perk is our healing. Wounds that could take months for a human takes mere minutes for us."

"Wow," Stiles breathed. "So silver hurts you then?"

A small smile appeared on her lips. "That's just a myth. Wolfsbane actually harms us the most."

"Oh. So, wait, why doesn't Derek want to tell me this stuff? It's not too bad."

"He's not worried about you being afraid of us. If you were, I doubt we'd be having this conversation." Stiles grinned and nodded. "Derek wasn't born deaf." She paused and moved her gaze back to her cup, her grip on it tightening slightly. "It happened a few years ago, after Isaac, Erica and Boyd were turned. Word got out that our alpha had been building up our pack, making it stronger, and it made its way to some hunters. One of them kidnapped Derek out of the blue. It took us a while, but we found him. He was... There was blood running down the sides of his face and he was giving us all a blank expression. Then he just... He roared so loud and... and he became violent. Our alpha had to calm him down and it took some time, but he did.

"Turns out that they'd pumped him full of wolfsbane and one of the hunters had used some electric rods and blasted his eardrums. His body was too weak from the poison, it couldn't heal him. Once all of the wolfsbane was out, the only thing that healed was the burns and scars. His hearing was gone.

"He's never been the same since. He feels weak now. Losing a sense like that... I can't fully comprehend, but I can try to understand and he feels so ashamed..."

"Like he doesn't deserve to be a werewolf anymore," Stiles added quietly, glancing over at the empty doorway.

"Yeah. Exactly." She followed his gaze. "He doesn't like signing - makes him feel worse - but he's picked it up pretty quickly. When you came over that night and tried to communicate with him, he was surprised. I'm really the only one that can sign fluently. Cora, Boyd and Erica know some and Isaac has tried, but he just can't get it. He was actually really excited when I told him I'd be giving you lessons."

"Why's that?"

"He's just tired of talking to just us, having only us understand him. But if he tries to go out with old friends, he gets frustrated because he has to use text or they completely forget he's there."

"That's terrible." Stiles shook his head then stood. "Where is he?"

Laura tilted her head slightly. "Front porch."

"Thanks." Stiles went out there and found Derek sitting on one of the steps, hunched over. He sat down beside him and looked off into the forest. He didn't say anything; he wanted Derek to be the first to speak when he felt he was ready. He had so many things to say and had no clue where to start.

After a while, Stiles started to get restless and was about to take his leave when Derek turned to him. His expression was hard, but not completely closed off. Stiles could see apprehension in his hazel eyes, eyebrows pulled down in confusion rather than the glare from earlier.

'What did she tell you?' He signed slowly, reluctantly.

Stiles turned to face Derek so he could see him signing at a better point of view and signed back, 'Everything.'

Derek inhaled sharply and closed his eyes. 'So you know I'm...'

The younger boy put his hands over Derek's, waited for him to open his eyes again before he gave him a smile and nodded.

"I don't mind," he whispered, watching Derek's eyes flicker to his mouth as he enunciated his words. "I doesn't change what I think of you. You're still that amazing singer I met at the karaoke night." Derek's expression softened as his shoulders sagged. He flipped his hands over and wrapped his fingers around Stiles hands, smiling. "I'm going to kiss you."

Derek's eyes widened a fraction before Stiles went in and pressed his lips against the man's. He was worried that he moved too quickly, but the older man started kissing him back. They broke away for air after a few moments and smiled at each other.

Derek moved back a bit more and pulled his hands away to sign. 'Thank you, Stiles.'

Stiles gave him an incredulous look. 'For what?'

'For saying hi that night. For accepting me as I am. For being you.' Stiles couldn't help the smile that appeared in his face. 'But next time, you're singing with me.'

Stiles eyes widened. "Uh, no. I can't sing and my signing is crap!"

Derek chuckled. 'I said next time, not today.'

'Whatever. I'll probably just watch you instead.'

The older man shook his head fondly, then placed his hands on either side of Stiles' face and kissed him once more. He pulled away and whispered, "Thank you."

A/N: Thanks for reading! I really enjoyed writing this one. I apologize for any mistakes, but I hope you like it as much as I do!

Have a good day!


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